Istanbul: An explosion in the heart of Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet tourist district killed at least 10 people and wounded 15 on Tuesday and some local media reports said a suicide bomber may have been responsible

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Foreign tourists from Germany and Norway were among those wounded, Turkey's CNN Turk television said.
An official from one tour company who declined to be identified told Reuters that a tourist group from Germany was in the area at the time of the blast, but it was unclear whether any of them had been hurt/

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Turkey's AHaber television said the blast may have been caused by a suicide bomber but this was not independently confirmed.

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"Ambulances started rushing in and I knew it was a bomb right away because the same thing happened here last year," said Ali Ibrahim Peltek, 40, who operates a kiosk selling snacks and drinks on the square.

"This is not good for Turkey but everyone was expecting a terrorist attack," he said.

Mr Davutoglu's office imposed a broadcasting ban on the blast, invoking a law which allows for such steps when there is the potential for serious harm to national security or public order.

I doubt this is Russian payback. Russia would never attack a place frequented by German or European tourists.

This is most likely a Frankenstein effect or Kurdistan effect. On the other hand, it is a good thing that Russian tourists are not there any more, otherwise, there would have been Russian casualties.

While I have sympathies for the German victims, not so much for Germany. They have been in a long standing love affair with the Turks, and their Jihadi minions in the Balkans, such as, the Albanians and Circassians.

True. In fact, some Syrian IS unit has claimed responsibility, just saw that in news. It could also be a Kurdish group, pretending to be IS. Turkey has put entire Kurdish majority district under siege, the visuals look like that of LTTE vs Srilanka civil war. Of course, Turkey being a NATO member, the American propaganda machinery, aka 'free and fair press', is covering it up. It's a good thing RT exists.

I doubt this is Russian payback. Russia would never attack a place frequented by German or European tourists.

This is most likely a Frankenstein effect or Kurdistan effect. On the other hand, it is a good thing that Russian tourists are not there any more, otherwise, there would have been Russian casualties.

While I have sympathies for the German victims, not so much for Germany. They have been in a long standing love affair with the Turks, and their Jihadi minions in the Balkans, such as, the Albanians and Circassians.

No what I literally meant was that Russia wouldn't be the one behind this proxy attack. Russian thinking, perception and actions are very different from how the west operates or the oriental eastern strategists operate.

Russia can chew off a good chunk of Turkey's economy, remember that Russia satisfies a large % of Turkish fuel requirements and other things (nuclear reactors were being discussed). Not to mention trade with a particular nation is not an isolated entity nor can it be isolated. Every industry is co-dependent on each other. So looking at 'Russian economic relations with Turkey' in isolation will provide a deceptively incorrect inference. If Russia withdraws its supply of cheap oil and cancels the nuclear supply deals, then Turkey will have to spend a lot of its attention looking for it elsewhere, this in turn impedes their full industrial potential.

No russian tourists; german and eurotourists (which will piss off public in those countries wrt to german-turkey-IS links,) hmmm.

I mean in spite of what RT tells us, Russia can not financially cripple turkey with sanctions and what not. This would be a good way for russia to get back?

Ahh just speculating too hard these days

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I think Russia's long standing olive branch towards Germany is genuine. This is just my opinion, not necessarily a fact, so yes, I would not discount what you are implying.

Russia can financially cripple Turkey, if it is willing to supply its base in Syria via the long route circumventing Europe (St. Peterburg, - Gibraltar - Tartous). This is going to be a logistical impediment to Russia, time-wise, and not cost wise, because I don't think Russia could be remotely affected if it has to spend more fuel running ships along the long route.

I think a calibrated response so far is good enough.

Turkey is nervous. Turkey has escalated its reprisals against the Kurds. We shall have to wait for more information.

If the bomb blasts in Turkey were carried out by the Kurds, then I cannot say Russia is completely unaware, but I can say with confidence, if it was carried out by the "moderate" whatever, Russia is not even remotely involved.

ISIS has no reason to hate Turkey since they are the biggest friends and logistics provider for ISIS in that region. Turkey provides weapons and training to ISIS, in return ISIS smuggles Syrian oil to Turkey (managed by the oil company belonging to the son of Turkish president). It's a perfectly symbiotic relationship forged at the highest levels. The only group that Turkey sees as a threat is the Kurds. A civil war is going on in the Kurdish region and Turkey has rolled in tanks. I don't think we could dismiss the possibility of a Kurdish blowback.

I feel so too. Also, their olive branch towards France is genuine too. Even after the US pressurized France not to sell Mistral ships to Russia, Russia still stood in solidarity with France after the Paris attacks. They sent their Navy and Putin personally asked their military to co-operate with French Navy in the conduct of operations.

The more Putin interviews you see, the more you realize that this bullshit 'moderate rebel, good terrorist, bad terrorist, freedom fighter' narrative has been created by USA to knock out Middle East (by war) and Europe (by economic means). Obama himself said that European nations had no intention to sanction Russia or get into the Middle East war, but "we had to twist their arms"

I agree. I did not see that point earlier. I think it is not in the interest of the Kurds to hurt German/European tourists, and I think they know that.

My money is on ISIS or other "moderate" whatever.

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My initial thoughts were that it couldn't be the kurds for the reason Virendra pointed out, so I did not even consider them.
Next was ISIS, but then I was thinking, why would ISIS attack their best friends (turkey). So I removed them.

And then I arrived at Russia.

But thanks for bringing in the famed "moderates"; I'd forgotten about them, silly me.

My initial thoughts were that it couldn't be the kurds for the reason Virendra pointed out, so I did not even consider them.
Next was ISIS, but then I was thinking, why would ISIS attack their best friends (turkey). So I removed them.

And then I arrived at Russia.

But thanks for bringing in the famed "moderates"; I'd forgotten about them, silly me.

It's a media hit job on behalf of Turkey. It doesn't matter who did it, they want to use it as an opportunity to direct ire at Russia to build the 'ire reservoir' which can be later used to cause a tsunami of anger by turning on the tap, in case Turkey decides to go to war with Russia.

The US didn't care about any clinical or forensic evidence about who did 9/11. Just the next day Bush stands on the rubble and declares in his redneck voice that they need to invade Afghanistan. That's how nations work.

In fact the US is trying very hard to promote the idea that 'ISIS has plans to attack India', to that end they are publishing propaganda about alleged ISIS pamphlets being found with Indian maps and whatnot. All of this is to prepare the Indian public psyche such that whenever Pakistan does a proxy attack, the blame falls on ISIS, not Pakistan. Of course, their friends in the media aka Barkha Dirt, will do a fantastic job of selling the idea, by alluding to previous statements of intent, that it could be ISIS and not Pakistan. The youth waving ISIS flags in Kashmir valley are deliberately given media coverage by presstitutes because they are trying to sell that idea on behalf of the CIA-ISI nexus.

Media is not the fourth pillar of democracy it is the fourth pillar of warfare after army, navy, airforce. If you can buy the presstitutes of a nation, you can control the actions of a nation.

It's a media hit job on behalf of Turkey. It doesn't matter who did it, they want to use it as an opportunity to direct ire at Russia to build the 'ire reservoir' which can be later used to cause a tsunami of anger by turning on the tap, in case Turkey decides to go to war with Russia.

The US didn't care about any clinical or forensic evidence about who did 9/11. Just the next day Bush stands on the rubble and declares in his redneck voice that they need to invade Afghanistan. That's how nations work.

In fact the US is trying very hard to promote the idea that 'ISIS has plans to attack India', to that end they are publishing propaganda about alleged ISIS pamphlets being found with Indian maps and whatnot. All of this is to prepare the Indian public psyche such that whenever Pakistan does a proxy attack, the blame falls on ISIS. Of course, their friends in the media aka Barkha Dirt, will do a fantastic job of selling the idea by allusions to previous statements of intent that it could be ISIS and not Pakistan.

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Interesting, it rhymes with what I recently heard. That Americans these days are calling their Afghanistan 'kills' as "ISIS".
Won't dwell much here though, would be off topic for this thread.